The Prettiest Oscars Red Carpet Looks in History

The 97th Academy Awards will be held in Los Angeles on March 2. This year's nominees include Zoe Saldaña, Timothée Chalamet, Demi Moore, Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Mikey Madison, Colman Domingo, and more. I'm waiting with bated breath to find out which movie will win Best Picture, but I'm mostly excited to see what everyone will wear on the red carpet. I am a fashion editor and not a movie critic, after all.

Ahead of tonight's ceremony, I wanted to take a walk down memory lane and revisit some of the prettiest Oscars dresses in history. This list is highly subjective, but I did my due diligence reviewing hundreds of outfits dating back decades. Just for fun, I also polled my Who What Wear co-workers to find out which dress they think is the most beautiful. Their top pick? Carey Mulligan's Balenciaga look from 2024. In my mind, however, all of these dresses deserve our praise. Scroll down to see my favorites.

Lupita Nyong'o won her first Oscar wearing this ethereal Prada gown in 2014.

Emma Stone's fringed Givenchy dress from 2017 will certainly go down in fashion history.

If I had to choose just one look, it would probably be Marion Cotillard's Jean Paul Gaultier dress from 2008.

Halle Berry's excellent Elie Saab dress from 2002 is etched into my brain.

Gwyneth Paltrow memorably wore a Ralph Lauren dress to the Oscars in 1999, the year she won Best Actress for her role in Shakespeare in Love.